The Commentators

This is Raleigh Mann. What are the qualifications for someone whose job it is to control a university? How about a whole bunch of universities – say, 17 of them? Some experience in higher ed administration is essential, wouldn’t you say? But members of our UNC System’s Board of Governors don’t bring that kind of […]

This is Art Menius. I have been following with great interest the efforts by Carrboro, Orange County, and Chapel Hill to agree on a new fee structure for recycling. We have witnessed some high-level discussion on what equity really means concerning one fee for all versus tiered fees with rural residents paying more that Chapel […]

The construction fences are going up on Elliott Road and you’ll now have to look a little harder for a parking space at Whole Foods. Work is beginning on Village Plaza Apartments on the site where the movie theater stood over a decade ago. It’s the first project in the newly-created Ephesus Fordham district, designed […]

For anybody who wants to participate in the ongoing controversy about the UNC academic and athletics scandal, run to see Playmakers stunning performance of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. If you can’t see it, at least read it and discuss it with friends. To summarize briefly, the town doctor discovers that the recently constructed springs, the basis of an institute intended to bring health and prosperity, are contaminated, promising sickness instead of cure. Instead of welcoming this undeniable truth in a community meeting, the town leaders and the mob denounce the doctor and threaten his family as the curtain falls.

This is Raleigh Mann. Try to imagine how you would feel if an angry neighbor appeared at your front door with a gun tucked in his belt, or carrying a rifle. Pretty scary. What exactly is the point of that? I think it is this. His message is clear: Don’t mess with me. I’m armed, […]

He held the hand of a little girl, I assumed his daughter, as they walked down the long corridor of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. An unsophisticated freshman from North Wilkesboro opened the door of the Student Union in the fall of 1988 on his way to the Daily Tar

It doesn’t take long for the GOP’s true colors to come out. And even longer to see the true results of the actions of last year’s long session. The message from legislators is: We value the experience of our own employees. We just don’t value your experience in our schools. Last year, state lawmakers removed the longevity bonus pay for veteran teachers and rolled it into their base salary. At the same time, they unveiled a new pay scale that boosted the pay of newer teachers in an attempt to be viewed to balance out the low pay raises of the long term teachers. Others in state government, including state legislative staffers, kept their bonus pay as well as a raise of $1,000, plus five extra vacation days. Lawmakers also raised the pay by 5 to 6 percent for newer members of the Highway Patrol, but they did not take away longevity pay for the troopers, which is the same as what most state employees receive.

A growing group of Muslims has been meeting for prayer in the Duke Chapel basement, but when the university agreed to let them issue their weekly calls to prayer from the chapel’s belfry, voices of anti-Islam bigotry rose up to say no. 224 miles away, Franklin Graham, son of the peace-loving evangelist Billy Graham, went ballistic. It’s a Christian chapel, he insisted. Muslims shouldn’t be using it. It’s fair to say that Graham has a history of hating Islam. He calls it a false religion, guided by treacherous deceit. Quoting now, he has said, “The blinding lies of Satan himself are the dark and sinister force ultimately behind any false religion. It is impossible for a false religion to be a true religion of peace.”

UNC’s failure to forfeit the games involving players who maintained eligibility by taking fake classes is further evidence that Big Time revenue sports harm universities. The university’s motto, lux et libertas (“light and liberty”), is a powerful metaphor for the core value of honesty or integrity. Without honesty, the entire knowledge-producing architecture of universities collapses in a […]

It’s the time of year where you’re bound to hear some long-time residents proclaim, “I just love Chapel Hill when the students are out of town!” I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that our family enjoys dining on Franklin Street when there’s plenty of parking and no waiting for a table thanks to the […]

In 20 years of living in South Florida, I was able to witness what overdevelopment does to a community. I saw miles of beautiful beachfront turn into a canyon of high-rise buildings blocking the sun. From the Atlantic Ocean to the Everglades, row upon row of concrete driveways and backyard swimming pools replaced palm trees and open space. And when the space ran out, mountains of sand were dumped to create more land, so we could build farther out into the Everglades.

Recently, ESPN published a heartwarming and extraordinary story about Paul Quinn College. The tiny school, with an enrollment of about 220, serves primarily African-American and Hispanic students in Dallas, Texas. About 5 years ago, the college’s president, Michael Sorrell, encouraged the creation of an organic farm on campus. He was motivated by two factors. The college is located in a 95% minority, low income neighborhood, officially designated a “food desert”, because there is no convenient access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other nutritious foods. Second, he had personally experienced the consequences of working in a food desert by gaining a lot of weight from eating at the fast food restaurants and convenience stores that were accessible to the college.

As you drive or stroll along Franklin and Rosemary streets and crane your neck to view the upper stories of the high-rise buildings that seem to have been transplanted here from Charlotte or Atlanta, you may wonder, why are we doing this?

This is Raleigh Mann. I confess it: I’m a big fan of Carolina sports. Right now, I am very excited as basketball season gets under way. When I was teaching, some student athletes found their way to my courses. They had to work, and the grading was tough. I was impressed by how many of […]

Let’s say you wanted to start a business. And since you live in Chapel Hill, you’d really like to have your office here in Chapel Hill. So you begin the quest for office space. A couple of creative hotshots you want to hire tell you they want to work where you can walk to lunch […]

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